Assad not crazy, needs guarantees – Medvedev

Proposals to end the Syrian conflict that ignore President Assad are not feasible, Russia’s Prime Minister says. Hailing the success of the chemical weapons plan, Medvedev stressed the international community needs to keep working for a peaceful solution.

In an interview with Reuters, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev
urged Russia’s international partners “not to let the
situation spiral out of control.”

He accepted that significant progress had been made on the
chemical weapons front. Damascus met its deadline of destroying
“the critical equipment which is needed to run their chemical
weapons production facilities” on Wednesday, according to the
UN Watchdog.

Recognizing the breakthrough, Medvedev said it was important to
get up the diplomatic pressure and reach a practical solution to
the conflict that involved President Bashar Assad.

“The proposals to find an arrangement by ignoring President
Assad are not feasible while he remains in power,” noted
Medvedev, adding that Assad “is not crazy; he needs to get
some guarantees or proposals on the development of the political
dialogue in Syria, possible elections and his personal fate.”

Referencing the Arab Spring movement that led to the ouster of
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, Medvedev said that
Assad needed guarantees of his safety.

“You can’t just tell him, ‘Get out of here and we’ll then sort
it out.’ It’s a complicated process and all the sides, both the
opposition and the regime, have to make concessions.”

Representatives from the Syrian opposition refused to take part
in the Geneva-2 peace talks last week. Members of the opposition
have said they are not prepared to take part in negotiations to
end the conflict unless Assad steps down immediately.

A total of 19 Syrian rebel groups stated they would not be
attending and said that if any opposition figures participated it
would amount to ‘treason’.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has urged those who wield
influence with the opposition to persuade them to come to the
bargaining table.

Chemical weapons

The deal for the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons
stockpile marked a milestone in the battle to bring an end to the
conflict. The Russian proposal has so far been hailed a success
by the UN Watchdog, which says that 21 out of 23 chemical weapons
sites across Syria have been visited.

Russia, along with a number of other nations, has offered its
support in the destruction of Syria’s weapons. The government has
allocated around $2 million to help with the plan and will send
military experts to Syria, reports Russian newspaper Kommersant.
In addition, Russia may offer vehicles to transport some of
Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal out of Syria.